Differences between Monogatari Series Novels, Manga, and Anime Adaptations
While the adaptations of the Monogatari Series light novels generally stay relatively true to their source material, like all adaptations, there is cut content and a handful of notable changes. In general, the novels feature extended conversations and hefty narration commentary, while the adaptations have shortened dialogue and unique visuals. Occasionally, text flashes are put in place for narration and other text from the novels that is otherwise left out in the anime adaptation. Major plot points are mostly unchanged, though some story content is occasionally cut or altered slightly. The novels are also notably more meta, especially featuring even more references to other anime, manga, and light novels and a self aware attitude in which the fourth wall is constantly broken. The novels even reference the anime adaptations, noting how certain parts may be hard to animate and mentioning voice actors of characters. The novels also have certain instances that refer to darker, more serious subject matter that are sometimes cut from adaptations. No male characters, including protagonist Koyomi Araragi, are depicted in novel artwork, so their appearances are more open to the imagination in novel canon. As such, visual gags such as Koyomi's expressive ahoge are only present in the animated version. Notably, the manga adaptation came later, and therefore adapts elements from both the novels and animated versions while featuring a distinct canon that takes a few more liberties in altering the story. Bakemonogatari Bakemonogatari (anime series) General * Hitagi has purple hair, unlike the novel artwork that depicts her with brown hair. *Suruga's room appears to only have books in the anime whereas in the novels her room has a wide variety of different things. Specific ''Episode 01'' * The anime series opens with a prologue montage featuring events from Kizumonogatari, not present in the original novel. Episode 06 * Certain aspects in the action scene introducing Rainy Devil are cut from the adaptation. In the novel, Koyomi is on his bike when he first sees the oddity, and jumps off it to avoid a punch from it which destroys his bike. He then evades some punches, one of which destroys a concrete block wall behind him, before it finally hits him, sending him flying. In the adaptation, the evasion elements are cut entirely and the Rainy Devil merely hits Koyomi as he's casually walking with his bike next to him, causing both the bike and him to take the intense damage at once. * When Araragi talks to Hachikuji at the beginning of the arc, 2 unnamed high school girls from another school walk past Araragi and laugh at him, to which Araragi has an indifferent response. This is cut from the anime adaptation. Episode 09 * When Nadeko asks Suruga and Koyomi to turn around before revealing her snake marks, a whispered conversation where Suruga talks about trying to liven up the mood is cut entirely from the adaptation. She mentions feeling wary about Nadeko's emotional stability, claiming she seems as though she could easily be driven to self-harm in her depressed state, especially while in possession of the chisels she used to perform the snake killing ritual. Bakemonogatari (manga) General * The sequence in which events are presented within each original episode is shuffled a bit from past versions. * Flashbacks of events from Kizumonogatari are directly adapted from the actual installment, whereas the novel has vague explanations due to coming out before the Koyomi Vamp story, and the anime version only having visualizations based on the novels original descriptions (besides the prologue in the first episode). * Oshino is seen actually smoking the cigarettes he puts in his mouth, unlike the novel and anime versions where he is never seen lighting them. In the novels, he explains that if he actually smoked them, it would be troubling to animate in an anime adaptation. Specific * A brief sequence describing Araragi's first encounter with Kiss-Shot (present in all versions, not literally the Koyomi Vamp story) shows him finding her on the street (like the novel) but while riding on a bike, different from all other previous versions. The sequence also features dialogue taken straight from the actual Koyomi Vamp story, whereas other versions did not feature any and only showed visuals of or described the event. Kizumonogatari Bakemonogatari (anime series) An opening montage sequence adapts brief visuals of events from Kizumonogatari. These show scenes like Kiss-Shot being found under a light in what looks like an underground tunnel and earlier character designs for the hunters, especially Dramaturgy who looks more inhumanly with dark skin and red eyes. Kizumonogatari (movie) Being a film, as opposed to a TV adaptation, Kizumonogatari seems to take the most liberties in terms of cutting and changing material from the source material compared to other anime adaptations. Combined with wanting to make it more cinematic and not having enough run-time, quite a bit of material was cut or altered slightly. It also notably depicts certain events differently from even the TV series adaptations. General * Less dialogue and context, but more dynamic action scenes and visuals in films. * Much less narration is present in place for mostly visual story telling in the adaptation, compared to the novel which is extremely heavy on narrator commentary. * Eikou Cram School is merely an abandoned building with no blatant signs of ruin, with working lights and elevators. In the novel, it is described as being severely worn down, similar to how it is in other adaptations. Koyomi even notes how he knows an elevator he found doesn't work, whereas he first appears leaving a working one in the opening scene of the first film. * Background information and additional characterization for Dramaturgy, Episode, and Guillotine Cutter is mostly left out * While Karen and Tsukihi have indirect cameos in the book, they make no appearance at all in the film adaptation * The novel is more self aware, commonly comparing instances to anime tropes and commenting on how absurd things would look in an anime adaptation * Crows are commonly featured in multiple scenes whereas they were never described in the novel. Specific ''Part 1: Tekketsu'' * The first film opens with the sunlight scene from Chapter 004 in place of a monologue in which Koyomi Araragi discusses his regret with having to tell the story. The scene features long moments of him walking around the cram school and climbing stairs before finally being set on fire. After the opening credits, the film continues with Chapter 002 and onward. * Foreshadowing dialogue in which Koyomi describes wanting to be a plant with Hanekawa is left out. * The sound of a car crashing can be heard during Koyomi's first meeting with Hanekawa in the film. Koyomi is seen passing the car before he starts throwing his bag in delight. In the novel, he describes being happy, but doesn't physically show it. * Kiss shot is found in a subway station at the end of a blood trail in which Koyomi follows. Along the trail, there's also an area with a large blood splatter on the wall. In the novel, she's merely found outside under a street lamp without the intense build up. * In the scene before Koyomi saves Kiss-shot, a particularly suicidal line in which Koyomi screams about not doing a single worth while thing in his life, not having a reason to bother living, and how the world wouldn't care if he died is cut from the film. * Karen and Tsukihi are mentioned and have indirect dialogue with Koyomi through his phone in the novel. He explains how he'll be gone for a while on a journey of self discovery. * At the end of Chapter 004, Kiss shot is described letting out a gruesome laugh after welcoming Koyomi "to the world of darkness." In the film, she merely states the line in a seductive way while smirking. * In the film, the vampire hunters find Koyomi in an industrial setting, unlike the novel where the scene takes place in a suburban street. Dramaturgy also threateningly destroys a large tower in the film, causing Koyomi to fall over. * Dialogue between the vampire hunters when they find Koyomi is replaced with demonic gibberish, possibly to represent the foreign language Dramaturgy speaks in the novel and make the scene appear more frightening in Koyomi's perspective. This dialogue mostly involves: Dramaturgy speaking a different language and needing to be corrected into speaking Japanese, the hunters discussing the rarity of Kiss shot creating a minion, how he should treated as a separate bounty, and who should attack him first in order to find out about her whereabouts. After Koyomi's plea for mercy and a moment of silence, the novel also has the hunters briefly come to an agreement to attack at once before charging at him, while the film shows the hunters slowly commencing the attack without discussion. Part 2: Nekketsu * The second film opens setting the scene for the Dramaturgy fight from Chapter 008. In the film, the scene takes place during a heavy thunderstorm. Dialogue in which Dramaturgy requests Koyomi to join his clan of 53 vampires instead of fighting is cut. Dramaturgy implies that he is "number one" in his clan, but if Koyomi joined, he would become the new "number one" in no time. Koyomi denies and also attempts to tease Dramaturgy for his lame invitation, saying he'd never pick up a girl in such a way. The joke doesn't land, much to his dismay. After the opening credits, the film proceeds with Chapter 007. * A line where Hanekawa suggests talking about how to get rid of bullying is expanded upon in the novel, whereas the film cuts out the full conversation. Koyomi suggests using security cameras in all school rooms, to which Hanekawa criticizes for the issue of privacy. He attempts to fix his claim by stating that he'd do the honors of checking the girls locker room footage, to which she calls him out for suggesting peeping. * When Koyomi rejects Hanekawa in the film, she shows more signs of her feelings being hurt, whereas she mostly keeps a vague smile in the novel. A line where she apologizes to Koyomi for making him say all that in order to keep her away before running away is cut from the film, though a similar line is said when she meets him again in both the film and novel. * The novel describes Dramaturgy immediately punching Koyomi's arm "to smithereens" after agreeing to start the fight. In the film, there's first a moment in which Dramaturgy slowly walks towards him as Koyomi attempts to intimidate through boxing jabs. Instead of punching his arm off, he uses his leg to kick it off. The arm also doesn't immediately disappear, but flies across the air and lands on the floor in the background before eventually evaporating. * The novel describes Koyomi's arm regenerating and appearing again without him noticing until he picks himself up after tripping. He then does a back flip in excitement after Dramaturgy asks him if he's done running. In the film, Koyomi's arm remains cut off as he runs away through the school and its classrooms after Dramaturgy tosses him into the building through multiple windows. He hides during the comment Dramaturgy makes and realizes his arm is starting to grow back, with a small hand coming out of his shoulder (depicted in a somewhat comedic fashion with baby giggles playing in the background). Instead of doing a back flip, he grabs the hand and pulls it out confidently, causing the rest of his arm to regenerate on the spot. * Koyomi attempts to attack Dramaturgy head on using Aikido techniques that put him in a hold on the floor. In the film, he runs away to the rooftop of the building and attacks Dramaturgy from behind to initiate the tackle. After Dramaturgy cuts off Koyomi's arms to escape with his swords, instead of running away standing up, Koyomi quickly drags himself across the floor with his legs while dodging Dramaturgy's attacks before his arms come back, causing him to crab walk and leap backwards off the rooftop. * Dialogue between the two during the scene, including taunts and remarks about him improperly fighting like a human instead of a vampire, is mostly cut out entirely as Dramaturgy only says one line during the entire fight in the film. * Dramaturgy evaporates into mist in the novel after admitting defeat. In the film, the scene merely cuts to morning with the rain having stopped and Dramaturgy disappearing from the shot. Nisemonogatari Nisemonogatari (anime series) Nekomonogatari Black Nekomonogatari Black (anime) General Specific Episode 01 * The bit where Koyomi licks the bottom of Tsukihi's foot when talking about his feelings for Tsubasa is cut from the anime adaptation. Nekomonogatari White Monogatari Series Second Season General * Kako's fur has different colors in light novel artwork and the anime adaptation. Specific Kabukimonogatari Monogatari Series Second Season Otorimonogatari Monogatari Series Second Season Onimonogatari Monogatari Series Second Season Koimonogatari Monogatari Series Second Season Hanamonogatari Hanamonogatari (anime) Tsukimonogatari Tsukimonogatari (anime) Koyomimonogatari Koyomimonogatari (mobile application) Owarimonogatari Owarimonogatari (anime series) Category:List